Yoga with Jérôme Oliveira 25 july / 22 august 2021

Sunday July 25 and  August 22 11:00 a.m.
Learn to relax and breathe

The Château de Montsoreau – Museum of contemporary art opens its exhibition spaces to the practice of yoga and invites you to become one with the place.

A yoga teacher for about ten years, a graduate of the French School of Yoga with a specialization in anatomy and breath development, Jérôme Oliveira has been practicing yoga since his teenage years. Expert of well-being in France, he organizes conferences in Paris for the general public with international personalities such as: Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle or James Redfield. Also editor of the collection of books Bien-Etre published by J’ai Lu / Flammarion, he directs documentaries for television and portraits of contemporary artists.

Provide comfortable clothing.
Duration of the course: 1h30
Price: 25 Euros, equipment provided + book by Jérôme Oliveira Brûlant d’amour published by Eyrolles.
Reservations: 02 41 67 12 60 / contact@chateau-montsoreau.com

Yoga avec Jérôme Oliveira 6 avril 2025

Dimanche 6 avril 2025 à 11 heures
Apprenez à vous détendre et à respirer

Le Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain ouvre ses espaces d’exposition à la pratique du yoga et invite à faire corps avec le lieu.

Enseignant de yoga depuis une dizaine d’années, diplômé de l’école française de yoga avec une spécialisation en anatomie et développement du souffle, Jérôme Oliveira pratique le yoga depuis son adolescence. Expert du bien-être en France, il organise des conférences à Paris pour le grand public avec les personnalités internationales comme : Deepak Chopra, Eckhart Tolle ou James Redfield. Également éditeur de la collection de livres Bien-Etre aux éditions J’ai Lu / Flammarion, il réalise des documentaires pour la télévision et des portraits d’artistes contemporains. Il est l’auteur de deux livres : Burning Love : le journal pour brûler d’amour sans se brûler les ailes et Brûlant d’amour : suffit-il d’aimer et d’être aimé pour être heureux (éditions Eyrolles).

 

Prévoir une tenue confortable.
Durée du cours : 1h30
Tarifs
20€ : cours (matériel fourni)
Réservations : 02 41 67 12 60 / contact@chateau-montsoreau.com
et sur notre billetterie en ligne

 

Facebook: @ My Whole Project
Insta: @Jérôme Oliveira

 

2020 : Kenneth Goldsmith

Le 11 octobre 2020, le Prix François Morellet sera remis à Kenneth Goldsmith pour son livre Duchamp is my lawyer. The polemics, pragmatics, and poetics of Ubuweb, paru en 2020 chez Columbia University Press.

En 1996, alors que le web est relativement récent, Kenneth Goldsmith crée la plateforme UbuWeb afin d’y publier des œuvres de poésie concrète difficiles à trouver. D’abord site de partage proposant des œuvres issues d’un mouvement littéraire relativement obscur, UbuWeb est devenu une archive essentielle de la littérature, du cinéma et de la musique d’avant-garde et expérimentale des XXe et XXIe siècles. Grâce à ce site, des internautes du monde entier ont désormais accès à des œuvres canoniques d’artistes tels que Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Duchamp, Cecil Taylor, Glenn Ligon, William Burroughs et Jean-Luc Godard.

Dans Duchamp is my lawyer, Goldsmith revient sur l’histoire d’UbuWeb, expliquant les motivations de sa création et la manière dont les oeuvres sont archivées, consommées et distribuées en ligne. À partir de ses propres expériences et d’entretiens avec des experts, Goldsmith décrit comment le site navigue sur les questions du droit d’auteur et comment il remet en question l’histoire de l’avant-garde. Le livre décrit également la croissance d’autres “bibliothèques de l’ombre” et évoque les artistes dont les œuvres rejoignent les objectifs, l’esthétique et l’éthique de UbuWeb. Il conclut en opposant l’engagement d’UbuWeb dans le mouvement de la culture libre  aux gardiens actuels de la culture algorithmique, tels que Netflix, Amazon et Spotify.

Kenneth Goldsmith est tour à tour, premier lauréat de poésie du MoMA, fondateur et éditeur d’UbuWeb, professeur de Uncreative Writing à l’université de Pennsylvanie et animateur à la radio new-yorkaise WFMU. Il milite pour une écriture du plagiat, de la copie et de la retranscription. Considéré comme une personnalité majeure de la création contemporaine, il fait aussi figure de paradoxe, quand il est reçu à la Maison-Blanche en tant qu’auteur, alors qu’il a publiquement, avoué avoir volé les mots des autres, et fait l’apologie du plagiat.
Sur le modèle de l’Art Conceptuel, Kenneth Goldsmith développe ses textes selon de nouvelles formes d’installations et de diffusions, réfléchissant aux nouvelles possibilités qu’offrent le numérique et internet.
Il est notamment auteur de Théorie (2015) et L’écriture sans écriture : du langage à l’âge numérique (2018). 

En 2020, la région des Pays de la Loire s’associe aux Journées nationales du Livre et du vin et au Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain pour remettre le Prix François Morellet.

Jacques Halbert. Cerises 10.07 – 13.11.2020

« Le sujet n’est peut-être pas si essentiel,
c’est pourquoi je pourrai peindre des cerises toute ma vie ».
(Jacques Halbert)


Le monochrome à l’épreuve de la pornographie
En 1975, alors qu’il a vingt ans, Jacques Halbert rédige un texte fondateur de sa démarche artistique :  « Comment peindre une cerise ». Il y décrit étape par étape le processus de fabrication d’une peinture de cerise, avant de conclure malicieusement « Si vous avez suivi à la lettre ces conseils, vous avez sous les yeux une magnifique cerise peinte par vous. Vous êtes donc un artiste. » Ce texte est doublement fondateur, premièrement parce qu’effectivement Jacques Halbert va peindre inlassablement cette cerise toute sa vie, mais aussi parce qu’il conçoit sa peinture comme un outil pour modifier fondamentalement le rapport que les gens entretiennent traditionnellement avec l’œuvre d’art.

Le sujet « cerise » est banal, voire affligeant si on le replace dans le contexte du milieu de l’art des années 1970, alors que l’art minimal et l’art conceptuel règnent en maitres incontestés. Pourtant, tout le monde aime les cerises. Elles sont annonciatrices de l’été, des fêtes d’enfance, elles sont brillantes, juteuses, sucrées, rouges. Elle est aussi un prénom féminin, ses formes sont suggestives, et sa couleur ramène à celle d’un cuir laqué. Confronter la cerise avec la peinture la plus sophistiquée que l’art moderne ait produit, c’est-à-dire le monochrome, deviendra pour Jacques Halbert le chainon manquant entre l’art et la vie.
Dès lors, Jacques Halbert n’a de cesse de mettre à l’épreuve, de déstabiliser, de fragiliser le monochrome à l’aide de ce mode opératoire systématique à la précision chirurgicale. Il décline ce motif figuratif selon des rythmes réguliers ou des compositions aléatoires, et poursuit depuis quarante-cinq ans une œuvre minimale qui engage le visiteur dans une profonde redéfinition de la peinture.

La cerise, de prime abord candide, est porteuse d’une violence que souligne sa couleur rouge carmin, couleur du danger. Comme une goutte de sang indélébile, ou une tache de rouge à lèvres sur une surface immaculée, elle est le geste interdit qui vient ébranler la pureté du monochrome, lui enlever son mystère, désacraliser la peinture.
Cette dualité de la cerise, est énoncée ainsi par Jacques Halbert : « Le sujet n’est peut-être pas si essentiel, c’est pourquoi je pourrai peindre des cerises toute ma vie. ». Essaimées sur le monochrome, comme autant de mines sur un terrain vague, elles sont les prolégomènes d’une conception radicale de la peinture contemporaine.

L’œuvre de Jacques Halbert est marquée par l’ambivalence du langage et du monde. Son départ pour les Etats-Unis ne faisant qu’amplifier le trouble. Alors qu’en France ce motif se trouve avoir une charge érotique en plus d’être un prénom féminin, aux Etats-Unis le mot « Cherry » désigne en même temps le fruit, mais aussi très précisément le sexe de la femme. Le chaste monochrome est victime d’attaques pornographiques qui consistent à « peindre des cerises, partout, tout le temps, et ne penser qu’à ça ». La queue de la cerise, toujours associée au fruit, complexifie et amplifie la portée pornographique de l’œuvre, comme dans Il aime les cerises (1977) où le genre du modèle bien que clairement énoncé dans le titre, est remis en question par sa représentation.

Le bon goût
Son penchant pour la mise en scène de son personnage provoque une adhésion immédiate de la part des artistes New Yorkais de Fluxus et du Eat Art, mais la densité de sa mythologie individuelle fait qu’il est difficile de le rattacher à un mouvement artistique.
Propriétaire successivement de l’Art Café à New York (1985) qui devient le lieu de rendez-vous de l’avant-garde artistique (Ben Vautier, Jeff Koons, Daniel Spoerri, Andy Warhol, François Morellet…), puis de la Magnifik Gallery à Brooklyn où il expose Nicolas L., Olivier Mosset, Carolee Schneemann ou Alison Knowles, Jacques Halbert n’a de cesse de défaire, de déconstruire l’idée dominante de l’artiste comme prescripteur du bon goût. Son œuvre, libre et affranchie des conventions, parodie et dénonce la conception bourgeoise de l’art selon laquelle l’artiste serait le garant d’une définition du Beau, il définit lui-même cette posture néo-dadaïste comme « un manifeste du bon goût ».

Just a bowl of cherries
Jacques Halbert élabore une œuvre prolifique, vivante et festive qui interroge la valeur de l’art, son intérêt ou son importance. Confrontant simplement l’art et la vie, son œuvre plonge le visiteur dans une balade vers la création permanente. Dans Fashion Passion, film réalisé pendant le New York Fashion Show, dans l’effervescence créative du New York underground des années 80, le corps remplace le monochrome et sert de support à la peinture, créant une confusion entre érotisme, fête de village et genre sexué.
Questionner les arcanes de l’art et de la vie, avec un sérieux jamais dénué d’humour, lui permet d’évoquer les limites de notre condition et du rôle de l’artiste dans le processus créatif.
Nous serions tentés de conclure, comme dans la chanson Life is just a bowl of cherries : «Don’t take it serious / it’s too mysterious ».

Jacques Halbert . Cerises
Conçue par Alain Julien-Laferrière comme volontairement non rétrospective, l’exposition monographique de Jacques Halbert, Cerises, au Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain propose au visiteur une plongée au cœur de l’œuvre d’une personnalité hors-normes de l’art contemporain, marquée par les interventions de l’artiste dans l’espace public et ses confrontations au monochrome. Des archives, dessins, croquis de la première salle à l’intervention in situ et all over de la dernière salle, l’exposition développe l’œuvre de Jacques Halbert, complexe, libre et cassant les codes de la peinture moderne. Elle montre la répétition inlassable du motif, les décalages, les déclinaisons, et précise son rôle dans les investigations et l’œuvre de Jacques Halbert.

 

JACQUES HALBERT
CERISES
10 juillet – 13 novembre 2020
Commissariat : Alain Julien-Laferrière
Ouvert 7j/7j de 10h à 19h

HOME FROM HOME 13.04-13.07.2020

The Château de Montsoreau – Museum of contemporary art maintains its exhibition programme despite the health situation.
The exhibition Home from Home will open on April 13, 2020 and will take place in your home.

From Monday 13 April, it will be possible to download an exhibition kit from the museum’s website. The kit includes 12 works of art in digital format, which can be printed out and assembled according to the instructions provided. Anyone with a printer, a pair of scissors and a tube of glue can set up the exhibition at home, turning their house or apartment into a museum and its inhabitants into organizers.
The exhibition Home from Home has been imagined by the conceptual group Art & Language, and the works all come from the collection of the Château de Montsoreau – Museum of contemporary art.

#homefromhome

Should our website be saturated, you can request the exhibition kit by email at: contact@chateau-montsoreau.com.

Kenneth Goldsmith François Morellet Prize October 11th 2020

Born in 2016 from the will of Jean-Maurice Belayche, Philippe Méaille and François Morellet, the François Morellet Prize is the only prize to which François Morellet agreed to give his name.
Every year, it rewards a literary work or an author for his commitment to contemporary art and is part of a collaboration between the Château de Montsoreau – Museum of contemporary art and the National Book and Wine Days (Saumur).

On 11 October 2020, the François Morellet Prize will be awarded to Kenneth Goldsmith for his book Duchamp is my lawyer. The polemics, pragmatics, and poetics of Ubuweb, published in 2020 by Columbia University Press.

In 1996, when the web is relatively new, Kenneth Goldsmith created the UbuWeb platform to publish hard-to-find works of concrete poetry. Starting as a sharing site featuring works from a relatively obscure literary movement, UbuWeb has become an essential archive of avant-garde and experimental literature, film and music from the 20th and 21st centuries. Thanks to this site, Internet users around the world now have access to canonical works by artists such as Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Duchamp, Cecil Taylor, Glenn Ligon, William Burroughs and Jean-Luc Godard.

In Duchamp is my lawyer, Goldsmith looks back at the history of UbuWeb, explaining the motivations behind its creation and how works are archived, consumed and distributed online. Based on his own experiences and interviews with experts, Goldsmith describes how the site navigates copyright issues and how it challenges the history of the avant-garde. The book also describes the growth of other « shadow libraries » and discusses the artists whose works align with UbuWeb’s goals, aesthetics and ethics. It concludes by contrasting UbuWeb’s commitment to the free culture movement with the current guardians of algorithmic culture, such as Netflix, Amazon and Spotify.

Kenneth Goldsmith is the first MoMA poetry laureate, founder and publisher of UbuWeb, professor of Uncreative Writing at the University of Pennsylvania and host of New York radio station WFMU. He advocates for writing that is plagiarized, copied and transcribed. Considered a major figure in contemporary creative writing, he is also seen as a paradox when he is received at the White House as a writer, when he has publicly admitted to stealing other people’s words and advocating plagiarism.
Following the model of Conceptual Art, Kenneth Goldsmith develops his texts according to new forms of installations and broadcasts, reflecting on the new possibilities offered by the digital and internet.
He is notably the author of Kenneth Goldsmith: theory (2015) and Uncreative writing: managing language in the digital age, (2011).

In 2020, the Pays de la Loire region joins forces with the National Book and Wine Days and the Château de Montsoreau – Museum of Contemporary Art to award the François Morellet Prize.

Kenneth Goldsmith Prix François Morellet 11 octobre 2020

Né en 2016 de la volonté de Jean-Maurice Belayche, Philippe Méaille et François Morellet, le Prix François Morellet est le seul prix auquel François Morellet accepta de donner son nom.
Il récompense chaque année une oeuvre littéraire ou un auteur pour son engagement en faveur de l’art contemporain et s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une collaboration entre le Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain et les Journées nationales du livre et du vin (Saumur).

Le 11 octobre 2020, le Prix François Morellet sera remis à Kenneth Goldsmith pour son livre Duchamp is my lawyer. The polemics, pragmatics, and poetics of Ubuweb, paru en 2020 chez Columbia University Press.

En 1996, alors que le web est relativement récent, Kenneth Goldsmith crée la plateforme UbuWeb afin d’y publier des œuvres de poésie concrète difficiles à trouver. D’abord site de partage proposant des œuvres issues d’un mouvement littéraire relativement obscur, UbuWeb est devenu une archive essentielle de la littérature, du cinéma et de la musique d’avant-garde et expérimentale des XXe et XXIe siècles. Grâce à ce site, des internautes du monde entier ont désormais accès à des œuvres canoniques d’artistes tels que Kara Walker, Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Samuel Beckett, Marcel Duchamp, Cecil Taylor, Glenn Ligon, William Burroughs et Jean-Luc Godard.

Dans Duchamp is my lawyer, Goldsmith revient sur l’histoire d’UbuWeb, expliquant les motivations de sa création et la manière dont les oeuvres sont archivées, consommées et distribuées en ligne. À partir de ses propres expériences et d’entretiens avec des experts, Goldsmith décrit comment le site navigue sur les questions du droit d’auteur et comment il remet en question l’histoire de l’avant-garde. Le livre décrit également la croissance d’autres « bibliothèques de l’ombre » et évoque les artistes dont les œuvres rejoignent les objectifs, l’esthétique et l’éthique de UbuWeb. Il conclut en opposant l’engagement d’UbuWeb dans le mouvement de la culture libre  aux gardiens actuels de la culture algorithmique, tels que Netflix, Amazon et Spotify.

Kenneth Goldsmith est tour à tour, premier lauréat de poésie du MoMA, fondateur et éditeur d’UbuWeb, professeur de Uncreative Writing à l’université de Pennsylvanie et animateur à la radio new-yorkaise WFMU. Il milite pour une écriture du plagiat, de la copie et de la retranscription. Considéré comme une personnalité majeure de la création contemporaine, il fait aussi figure de paradoxe, quand il est reçu à la Maison-Blanche en tant qu’auteur, alors qu’il a publiquement, avoué avoir volé les mots des autres, et fait l’apologie du plagiat.
Sur le modèle de l’Art Conceptuel, Kenneth Goldsmith développe ses textes selon de nouvelles formes d’installations et de diffusions, réfléchissant aux nouvelles possibilités qu’offrent le numérique et internet.
Il est notamment auteur de Théorie (2015) et L’écriture sans écriture : du langage à l’âge numérique (2018). 

En 2020, la région des Pays de la Loire s’associe aux Journées nationales du Livre et du vin et au Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain pour remettre le Prix François Morellet.

Muséodrive 11 mai 2020

Le Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain rouvre au public le 11 mai 2020 avec la mise en place d’un dispositif de vente à emporter adapté à la situation sanitaire du déconfinement : le drive.

Le Muséodrive, permettra aux visiteurs, pour le prix d’un ticket d’entrée au musée (10,20€), de venir récupérer un kit d’exposition à l’entrée de l’établissement, le tout sans descendre de leur véhicule.

Le principe :

  1. Présentez-vous en voiture au guichet drive du musée.
  2. Composez votre kit d’exposition à la carte.
  3. Payez vos achats sans descendre de votre véhicule.
  4. Installez l’exposition chez vous !

Ouvert 7j/7j de 10h à 19h.

#muséodrive

Home from Home 13.04-13.07.2020

Le Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain maintient son programme d’expositions malgré la situation sanitaire.
L’exposition Home from Home ouvrira le 13 avril 2020 et elle aura lieu chez vous, à domicile.

A partir du lundi 13 avril, il sera possible de télécharger un kit d’exposition sur le site internet du musée. Le kit comprend 12 œuvres d’art au format numérique qu’il suffit d’imprimer et d’assembler selon le mode d’emploi fourni. N’importe qui possédant une imprimante, une paire de ciseaux et un tube de colle peut monter l’exposition chez lui, transformant ainsi sa maison ou son appartement en musée et ses habitants en organisateurs.
L’exposition Home from Home a été imaginée par le collectif d’artistes conceptuels Art & Language, et les œuvres proviennent toutes de la collection du Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain.

#homefromhome

Si notre site web venait à être saturé, vous pouvez faire la demande du kit d’exposition par mail à : contact@chateau-montsoreau.com

 

 

 

Volume 1 number 2

 

2 February 1970

Contents: Introductory Note by the American Editor  Joseph Kosuth, David Bainbridge, Three from may 23rd, 1969.  Frederic Barthelme, Notes on Marat  Stephen McKenna, Plans and procédures  Michael Baldwin, Dialogue  Ian Burn, Moto-spiritale  Robert Brown-David Hirons, From an Art & Language Point of View  Terry Atkinson, Concerning Interpretation of the Baindridge / Hurell Models  Terry Atkinson, Notes on Atkinson’s Concerning Interpretation of the Bainbridge / Hurell Model’s  Harold Hurell, Sculptures and Devices  Harold Hurell, Conceptual Art: Category & Action  Michael Thompson, Notes on Généalogies  Mel Ramsden

JOSEPH KOSUTH: INTRODUCTORY NOTE BY THE AMERICAN EDITOR.

Current American art activity can be considered having three areas of endeavour. For discussion purposes I call them: aesthetic, ‘reactive’, and conceptual. Aesthetic or ‘formalist’ art and criticism is directly associated with a group of writers and artists working on the east coast of the United States (with followers in England). It is however, far from limited to these men, and as well is still the general notion of art as held by most of the lay public. That notion is that, as stated by Clement Greenberg: « aesthetic judgements are given and contained in the immediate experience of art. They coincide with it; they are not arrived at afterwards through reflection or thought. Aesthetic judgements are also involuntary: you can no more choose whether or not to like a work of art than you can choose to have sugar taste sweet or lemons sour. »

In terms of art then this work (the painting or the sculpture) is merely the ‘dumb’ subject-matter (or cue) to critical discourse. The artist’s role is not unlike that of the valet’s assistance to his marksman master: pitching into the air of clay plates for targets. This follows in that aesthetics deals with considerations of opinions or perception, and since experience is immediate art becomes merely a human ordered base for perceptual kicks, thus paralleling (and ‘competing’ with) natural sources of visual (and other) experiences. The artist is omitted from the ‘art activity’ in that he is merely the carpenter of the predicate, and does not take part in the con­ceptual engagement (such as the critic functions in his traditional role) of the ‘construction’ of the art proposition. If aesthetics is concerned with the discussion of perception, and the artist is only engaged in the construction of the stimulant, he is thus — within the concept ‘aesthetics as art’ — not participating in the concept formation. In so far as visual experiences, indeed aesthetic experiences, are capable of existence seperate from art the condition of art in aesthetic or formalist art is exactly that discussion or consideration of concepts as examined in the functioning of a particular predicate in an art proposition. To re-state: the only possible functioning as art aesthetic painting and sculpture is capable of, is the engagement or inquiry around its presentation within an art proposition. Without the discussion it is `experience’ pure and simple. It only becomes ‘art’ when it is brought within the realm of an art context (like any other material used within art).1.

A short discussion of what I call ‘reactive’ art will be necessarily brief and simplistic. For the most part ‘reactive’ art is the scrap-heap of 20th century art ideas — cross-referenced, ‘evolutionary’, pseudo-historical, ‘cult of personality,’ and so-forth; much of which can be easily described as an angst-ridden series of blind actions.2

This can be explained partially via what I refer to as the artist’s ‘how’ and ‘why’ procedure. The ‘why’ refers to art ideas, and the ‘how’ refers to the formal (often material) elements used in the art proposition (or as I call it in my own work ‘the form of presentation’). Many dis­interested in and often incapable of conceiving of art ideas (which is to say: their own inquiry into the nature of art) have used notions such as ‘self-expression’ and ‘visual experience’ to give a ‘why’ ambiant to work which is basically ‘how’ inspired.

But work that focuses on the ‘how’ aspect of art is only taking a super­ficial and necessarily gestural reaction to only one chosen ‘formal’ conse­quence — out of several possible ones. As well, such a denial (or ignorance) of art’s conceptual (or ‘why’) nature follows always to a primitive or anthropocentric conclusion about artistic priorities.3

The ‘how’ artist is one that relates art to craft, and subsequently con­siders artistic activity ‘how’ construction. The framework in which he works is an externally provided historical one, which takes only into account the morphological characteristics of preceding artistic activity. This reactionary inputis has left us with a kind of involuted artistic inflation.

Thus the only real difference between the formalists and the ‘reactive’ artists is that the formalists believe that artistic activity consists in closely following the ‘how’ construction tradition; whereas the ‘reactive’ artists believe that artistic activity consists in an ‘open’ interpretation (and subse­quent reaction to) not as much the ‘how’ construction of ‘long range’ (or traditional) ‘how’ construction, but the ‘short range’ or directly preceding `how’ construction. But both readings of ‘how’ construction still—in a more or less sophisticated form—are concerned with the morphological charac­teristics, rather than the functional aspects, of artistic propositions.

Art propositions referred to by journalists as ‘anti-form’, ‘earthworks’, `process art’, etc. comprise greatly what I refer to here as ‘reactive’ art. What this art attempts is to refer to a traditional notion of art while still being ‘avant-garde’. One support is securely placed in the material (sculp­ture) and/or visual (painting) arena, enough to maintain the historical continuum4 while the other is left to roam about for new ‘moves’ to make and further ‘breakthroughs’ to accomplish. One of the main reasons that such art seeks connections on some level to the traditional morphology of art is the art market. Cash support demands ‘goods’. This always ends in a neutralization of the art proposition’s independence from tradition.

In the final analysis such art propositions become equivicated with either Painting or sculpture. Many artists working outside (deserts, forests, etc.) are now bringing to the gallery and museum super blown-up colour photographs (painting) or bags of grain, piles of earth and even in one instance a whole uprooted tree (sculpture). It muddles the art proposition into invisibility.5

At its most strict and radical extreme the art I call conceptual is such because it is based on an inquiry into the nature of art. Thus, it is not just the activity of constructing art propositions, but a working out, a thinking out, of all the implications of all aspects of the concept ‘art’. Because of the implied duality of perception and conception in earlier art a middle-man (critic) appeared useful. This art both annexes the functions of the critic, and makes a middleman unnecessary. The other system: artist-critic­audience existed because the visual elements of the ‘how’ construction gave art an aspect of entertainment, thus it had an audience. The audience of conceptual art is composed primarily of artists — which is to say that an audience separate from the participants doesn’t exist. In a sense then art becomes as ‘serious’ as science or philosophy, which don’t have ‘audiences’ either. It is interesting or it isn’t, just as one is informed or isn’t. Previously, the artist’s ‘special’ status merely relegated him into being a high priest (or witch doctor) of show business.6

This conceptual art then, is an inquiry by artists that understand that artistic activity is not solely limited to the framing of art propositions, but further, the investigation of the function, meaning, and use of any and all (art) propositions, and their consideration within the concept of the general term ‘art’. And as well, that an artist’s dependence on the critic or writer on art to cultivate the conceptual implications of his art propositions, and argue their explication, is either intellectual irresponsibility or the naivest kind of mysticism.

Fundamental to this idea of art is the understanding of the linguistic nature of all art propositions, be they past or Present, and regardless of the elements used in their construction.7

This concept of American ‘conceptual’ art is, I admit, here defined by my own characterisation, and understandably, is one that is related to my own work of the past few years. Yet it is here at the ‘strict and radical extreme’ where agreement is reached between American and British concep­tual artists—at least in the most general aspects of our art investigations—as diverse as the ‘choice of tools’ or methodology or art propositions may be.

There is a considerable amount of art activity between the ‘strict and radical extreme’. and what I call ‘reactive’ art earlier. My contributions by artists working on the American continent will be relatable — whenever possible — to the former, though unfortunately the quantity of such act­ivity make the sole consideration of such contributions impossible.

NOTES

  1. One begins to understand the popularity among critics of such mindless movements as expressionism, and the general distain toward ‘intellec­tual’ artists such as Duchamp, Reinhardt, Judd, or Morris.
  2. Artists in America have a tendency to cloak their investigations in such a way as to enable extra-art justification for their activities. I suspect this has a great deal to do with America’s basic anti- As John Sloan says in « The Gist of Art » (1939) « Artists, in a frontier society like ours, are like cockroaches in kitchens —not wanted, not encouraged, but nevertheless they remain. »
  3. In recent years artists have realised that the ‘how’ is often purchasable and that purchasability of the ‘how’ (and the subsequent ‘de-personal­isation’ of ‘how’ construction) is negatively impersonal only when the `how’ is functioning for a ‘personal touch’ why’ construct.
  4. And give the art economists and politicians something to ‘invest’ in.
  5. Unfortunately many of these artists want to reform the system enough to make their ideas acceptable, but not so much as to ruin their chances for ‘success’ in the grand old manner.
  6. An aspect of this problem is that which was fundamental to our earlier discussion of formalist and ‘reactive’ art. That has to do with the supervisory, even ‘parental’ role critics have taken in the 20th century toward artists; the institutionalised condescention engaged in by museum and gallery personnel; and the peculiar ability artists them­selves have to romanticise intellectual bankruptcy and opportunism.
  7. Without this understanding a ‘conceptual’ form of presentation is little more than a manufactured stylehood, and such art we have with increasing abundance.

DAVID BAINBRIDGE

The Sculpture1 is an assembly of switching elements of an electric circuit designed to function in a specific manner2. This assembly possesses two3 inputs and an output, and the performing of a ‘requisite act’ by an operator at an input results in an output. However, such are the characteris­tics of this assembly and the ‘system’ as a whole that what on one occasion suffices as ‘requisite act’ may not do so on another. Component parts of the assembly are; a capacity proximity switch and a keyswitch which are inputs and a display ‘nidus’5 where output occurs, and a ‘controller’6.

For each of these components is a ‘mode of encounter’ appropriate to their specification. For the key and proximity switches this ‘mode of encounter’ is synonymous with an operator’s performing the ‘requisite act’, the latter merely a behavioural counterpart or demonstration of the former. There being no such requisite act appropriate to the functioning of either controller7 or display this locates them in different and differing sectors of appraisal method.

There is some difficulty insofar as a ‘visual mode’ as the one specifically appropriate to the display is consistently apodeictically basically prior for all components in any empirical demonstration of them. On being placed in a gallery they assume a role of observanda much as other sculpture either currently sharing the same gallery or that previously there in an earlier exhibition. As such, these components, or the assembly as composite are liable for kind of spatial or morphological appraisals as usually attend the ‘visual encounter’. This is the mode specifically appropriate to the display and its specification admits of no other.

With the assembly two further modes are available to an ‘interested’ visitor. These are a ‘perusal’ mode and a ‘scrutiny’ mode which are specifi­cally appropriate to the proximity switch and keyswitch respectively. In order the proximity switch might function according to its specification, i.e. ‘switch’ this visitor is required to ‘perform the requisite act’ of approaching to within a few feet of it thus impinging its capacitive threshold. Similarly with regard to the function of the keyswitch where an act of locomotor dexterity is required.

As a composite assembly, that it might function according to its specification, i.e. produce a display as a consequence of its input conditions being fulfilled, there is a dicontinuity between the requisite act with regard to the components and that act with regard to the whole at certain times, and this is due to the machine’s parameters. There are periods when the act appropriate to the proximity switch is sufficient alone to elicit a display, there are never periods when the act appropriate to the keyswitch is sufficient alone to elicit a display. During these latter periods, our interested visitor must perform both acts ‘simultaneously.’

NOTES

  1. The three components, proximity switch, keyswitch, and display ‘nidus’, are spatialy displaced ‘grossly’ with regard to each other.8
    The controller is located within the display nidus.

On input from the proximity switch (PS above) has the capacity to operate the display provided the controller is ‘passive’ and permits the signal to reach display. When the controller is at state ‘active’ this input signal is routed through the switching element, ‘AND’, where an input signal from the keyswitch (KS above) is also required for this element to produce an output signal to operate display. Since AND can only produce such an output signal when both its inputs supply signals, it can be seen that ‘scrutiny’ alone is never sufficient to elicit a display.

  1. In a general sense, viewed as in note 2 above as unit mechanism. Rather it possesses one ‘complete’ input and one ‘partial’ input as a result of the necessity to ‘couple’ the keyswitch if a display is to be forthcoming. It requires a different sensibility to the one attempted here in order to take the spatial displacement of these inputs and the idea of their switching function as contingent, as contributing significantly toward describing the artifact.
  2. Due to the ‘controller’s’ periodically interrupting the proximity switch-display coupling (active state) a visitor’s perusal of this component (proximity switch) will not always elicit a display. This can be regarded as wholly characteristic of the assembly. Whereas, a visitor’s perusal can elicit a display prior to the control state going ‘passive’ due to the action of a second visitor encountering the keyswitch in the specified manner. This state of affairs can only be partially resolved if viewed as a function of the assembly (except, of course, when the keyswitch and proximity switch are encountered by the same person). It is an attribute of the gallery that the constraint on the number of visitors and their locomotor performances is slight.
  3. Where the « display » takes place’. The display is an acrylic disc which revolves when the input protocol is fulfilled.
  4. This runs through a fixed bistable cycle.
  5. Though there may be no ‘act’ in this locomotor’ sense, nonetheless one might speculate on their being a ‘mode’ (of encounter) appropriate to the controller which was ‘theoretical.’

CHARLOTTE MOORMAN. THINK CRAZY 12.11.2019 – 03.07.2020

From November 12, 2019, the Château de Montsoreau-Museum of Contemporary Art will devote an exhibition to Charlotte Moorman, a true legend of international contemporary creation.

Charlotte Moorman. Think Crazy moves away from the simplistic image of « topless cellist » that Charlotte Moorman has had since her performance of Nam June Paik’s « Sextronic Opera » to present the unclassifiable, iconoclastic and radical artist who is at once cellist, performer, event organizer and mediator of the avant-garde.

The « Joan of Arc of the New Music »

Because of her militant attitude, Charlotte Moorman was very early nicknamed the « Joan of Arc of New Music » by the composer Edgar Varèse.
After her academic training, Charlotte Moorman freed herself from the straitjacket of classical music to propose a vision of contemporary music based on the porosity between artistic practices.
She is close to John Cage, who developed a music in which the sounds of the world are used as a source of creation. She, for her part, develops a new relationship with interpretation, introducing a creative approach.
At every opportunity, Charlotte Moorman enthusiastically questions the frontier between music and visual arts and collaborates with the most innovative artists of her time: Nam June Paik, Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys.

The instrument of desire

Whatever the proposal, Charlotte Moorman executes it with precision.

In her performances, Charlotte Moorman emphasizes the physical and even carnal relationship between her body and her instrument. Both are sometimes put to the test, as when she plays naked on a cello carved out of a block of ice (Ice Cello, 1976) or when she plays on a bomb transformed into a cello (Bomb Cello, 1965).

She nevertheless manages to shock public opinion and to be arrested for indecent assault in the middle of a performance when, in 1967 during the Sextronic Opera with Nam June Paik, she takes off her clothes and continues to play bare-breasted. Many feminist artists (with the exception of her long-time friend Carolee Schneemann) have publicly denounced her, believing that she had too willingly exposed her body.

Sometimes a foreign body appears, such as that of Nam June Paik (Child of the Cello), which is interposed between the concert performer’s body and her cello.
If the body can be used as an instrument in the service of music, on the other hand, it is never instrumentalized.
Charlotte Moorman ironizes the idea of beauty conveyed by classical painting and denounces society’s obsession with the female body. In a photo taken for Miss City Beautiful in 1952, she already showed her sumptuous beauty with a casual and amused detachment. Suspended in the sky with balloons (Sky Kiss) by Jim McWilliams in 1976, in front of the Sydney Opera House, she plays her instrument with intensity, dressed in a concert dress in the image of a classical concert performer.

« Think Crazy »

In 1963, Charlotte Moorman created the « Festival d’avant-garde »… a festival that will last for 15 years. Programming the events, it invites artists (filmmakers, dancers, poets, musicians…) both known and unknown to invest New York City. From 1966 onwards, the festival ceased to take place in traditional theatres and moved to the public space (the J.F.Kennedy ferry, Central Park, the Wards and Mill Rock Islands, the 69th Infantry Regiment Arsenal or the Shea Stadium), thus setting a precedent for future major festivals of this kind.
Like a motto inscribed on the banners of the Avant-Garde Festival, « Think Crazy » by Polish artist Marek Konieczny is an exhortation to boldness and creativity. Combining his classical training with the avant-garde, Moorman once remarked: « I don’t feel like destroying a tradition. I feel like I’m creating something new. »

The exhibition

Charlotte Moorman. Think Crazy focuses on two main themes: Moorman’s repertoire as an artist and her work as founder and organizer of the Annual New York Avant-Garde Festival. It includes a wide variety of works: photos, videos, archives, ephemera from the artist’s private archives.
Several iconic works mark the route, such as Yoko Ono’s Cut Piece, which Charlotte Moorman is said to have performed nearly 700 times in her career and during which the audience is invited to cut off her red dress to take a piece with them; or Bomb Cello, where she appears playing the cello on a bomb with braided flowers as a bow.
The ephemera from her personal archives bear witness to a prolific production, as do all the posters for the 15 editions of the avant-garde festival.

2019: Bernar Venet

Nel 2019 il premio François Morellet è stato assegnato a Bernar Venet per il suo libro Poetic? Poetico? Anthologie 1967-2017 pubblicato da Jean Boîte.

Poetico? Poetico? L’Antologia 1967-2017 riunisce per la prima volta l’intera produzione di poesia mai esposta e raramente pubblicata dall’artista francese Bernar Venet. Questa somma di 248 poesie costituisce un indicatore essenziale della scrittura concettuale apparsa negli anni Sessanta e con il nostro senno di poi si posiziona come uno dei capisaldi di un grande cambiamento letterario del XX secolo: la scrittura senza scrittura, la chiave di volta del nostro rapporto con il testo nell’era digitale.
I testi, scritti in francese, inglese o in lingua matematica, composti in liste, diagrammi o prosa che possono essere apprezzati a livello puramente informativo, sono qui tagliati e incollati, le informazioni che portano vengono spostate nel campo della poesia. Con questo gesto Bernar Venet porta in superficie il materiale visivo e musicale di pura conoscenza. La mancata comprensione del testo o l’obsolescenza dell’informazione conferisce a questo insieme una forza poetica dal fascino enciclopedico.

2018: Eric de Chassey

Nel 2018, il Premio François Morellet è stato assegnato a Eric de Chassey per il suo libro Après la Fin, Suspensions et reprises de la peinture dans les années 1960 – 1970, pubblicato da Éditions Klincksieck.

Il libro analizza le domande sull’Arte sviluppate negli anni Sessanta e fino alla fine degli anni Settanta, il periodo della presunta fine del modernismo, quando lo status dell’artista stesso è stato messo in discussione. Nel corso dei capitoli, questo libro espone le diverse risposte portate dagli artisti: cambiamento di mezzo, interruzione di ogni pratica artistica per qualche anno, o anche definitivamente. Anche se la maggior parte di coloro che hanno abbandonato la pittura sono tornati, la comprensione della sospensione della pittura per quasi vent’anni getta una luce essenziale sulla storia dell’arte contemporanea.

2017: Michel Onfray

Il 14 maggio 2017 è stato assegnato il Prix François Morellet 2017 a Michel Onfray per i suoi scritti sull’arte contemporanea. Filosofo e saggista francese, Michel Onfray ha creato nel 2002 l’Università popolare di Caen, la cui diffusione mediatica è rafforzata da regolari interventi in TV o alla radio dove si esprime sui dibattiti politici e sociali. Michel Onfray ha scritto più di ottanta libri. Il suo pensiero è influenzato soprattutto da filosofi come Nietzsche ed Epicuro, dalla scuola cinica, dal materialismo francese e dall’anarchismo pro-Dhoniano.
Nella sua conferenza « L’arte contemporanea deve bruciare? « (ed. Frémeaux et associés) Michel Onfray « ci offre una rara opportunità per mettere in discussione i fondamenti di ciò che costituisce la produzione artistica del nostro tempo, per comprenderla, giudicarla e apprezzarla.

Con la sua solita chiarezza, consegna le chiavi di un mondo troppo spesso chiuso al grande pubblico, assente dalla nostra educazione e trascurato dai pensatori. Ripercorrendo la storia e le cause della costruzione di un movimento, sul significato delle opere di fronte alle domande della nostra società, Michel Onfray risveglia curiosità e interesse: ci apre finalmente le porte dei musei e delle collezioni d’arte contemporanea. »
(Lola Caul-Futy Frémeaux).

2016: Catherine Millet

Il primo Premio François Morellet è stato assegnato il 10 aprile 2016 a Catherine Millet per il suo lavoro di critica.
Catherine Millet ha poi sottolineato di aver scelto per la copertina della prima edizione del suo libro l’Art Contemporain en France una foto della famosa luce al neon di François Morellet. Ha anche tracciato un parallelo tra le opere del collettivo Art & Language esposte al Castello di Montsoreau – Museo di arte contemporanea e l’opera di François Morellet: « C’è una continuità tra questa forma d’arte molto geometrica e rigorosa praticata (con molto umorismo) da François Morellet e Art & Language composta da un gruppo di artisti molto teorici e divertenti ».

De gauche à droite: Philippe Méaille, Frédéric Morellet, Danielle Morellet, Michel Onfray, Jean-Maurice Belayche

2019: Bernar Venet

En 2019, el Premio François Morellet fue otorgado a Bernar Venet por su libro Poetic? ¿Poético? Antología 1967-2017 publicada por Jean Boîte.

¿Poético? ¿Poético? Antología 1967-2017 reúne por primera vez toda la producción de poesía jamás expuesta y raramente publicada por el artista francés Bernar Venet. Esta suma de 248 poemas constituye un marcador esencial de la escritura conceptual que apareció en los años sesenta y que, con nuestra perspectiva, se posiciona como una de las piedras angulares de un gran cambio literario del siglo XX: la escritura sin escritura, piedra angular de nuestra relación con el texto en la era digital.
Los textos, escritos en francés, inglés o en lenguaje matemático, compuestos en listas, diagramas o prosa que pueden ser apreciados a nivel puramente informativo, son aquí cortados y pegados, trasladando la información que llevan al campo de la poesía. Con este gesto, Bernar Venet lleva a la superficie de la página el material visual y musical del conocimiento puro. La falta de comprensión del texto o la obsolescencia de la información le da a este conjunto una fuerza poética con un encanto enciclopédico.

2018: Eric de Chassey

En 2018, el Premio François Morellet fue otorgado a Eric de Chassey por su libro Après la Fin, Suspensions et reprises de la peinture dans les années 1960 – 1970, publicado por las Éditions Klincksieck.

El libro analiza las cuestiones sobre el arte desarrolladas en los años 60 y hasta finales de los 70, período del supuesto fin de la modernidad, cuando el estatus del artista fue cuestionado. A lo largo de los capítulos, este libro expone las diferentes respuestas que han aportado los artistas: cambio de medio, interrupción de toda práctica artística durante unos años, o incluso de forma definitiva. Aunque la mayoría de los que habían dejado la pintura han regresado, la comprensión de esta suspensión de la pintura durante casi veinte años arroja una luz esencial sobre la historia del arte contemporáneo.

2017: Michel Onfray

El Premio François Morellet 2017 fue otorgado a Michel Onfray el 14 de mayo de 2017 por sus escritos sobre Arte Contemporáneo. El filósofo y ensayista francés Michel Onfray creó en 2002 la Universidad Popular de Caen. Su alcance mediático se refuerza con intervenciones regulares en la televisión o la radio donde se expresa sobre los debates políticos y sociales. Michel Onfray ha escrito más de ochenta libros. Su pensamiento está influenciado principalmente por filósofos como Nietzsche y Epicuro, por la escuela cínica, por el materialismo francés y por el anarquismo pro-doniano.
En su conferencia « ¿Debe arder el arte contemporáneo? « (ed. Frémeaux et associés) Michel Onfray « nos ofrece una rara oportunidad para cuestionar los fundamentos de lo que constituye la producción artística de nuestro tiempo, para comprenderla, juzgarla y apreciarla.

Con su habitual claridad, entrega las llaves de un mundo demasiado a menudo cerrado al público en general, ausente de nuestra educación y descuidado por los pensadores. Repasando la historia y las causas de la construcción de un movimiento, sobre el sentido de las obras frente a los interrogantes de nuestra sociedad, Michel Onfray despierta la curiosidad y el interés: por fin nos abre las puertas de los museos y de las colecciones de arte contemporáneo. »
(Lola Caul-Futy Frémeaux).

2016: Catherine Millet

El primer Premio François Morellet fue otorgado el 10 de abril de 2016 a Catherine Millet por su obra crítica.
Catherine Millet señaló entonces que había elegido para la portada de la primera edición de su libro l’Art Contemporain en France una foto de la famosa luz de neón de François Morellet. También estableció un paralelismo entre las obras del colectivo Art & Language expuestas en el Château de Montsoreau – Musée d’art contemporain y la obra de François Morellet: « Existe una continuidad entre esta forma de arte muy geométrica y rigurosa practicada (con mucho humor) por François Morellet y Art & Language compuesta por un grupo de artistas muy teóricos y divertidos ».

De gauche à droite: Philippe Méaille, Frédéric Morellet, Danielle Morellet, Michel Onfray, Jean-Maurice Belayche

2016: Catherine Millet

The first François Morellet Prize was awarded on April 10, 2016 to Catherine Millet for her body of critical work.
Catherine Millet then pointed out that she had chosen for the cover of the first edition of her book l’Art Contemporain en France a photo of François Morellet’s famous neon light. She also drew a parallel between the works of the Art & Language collective exhibited at the Château de Montsoreau – Museum of contemporary art and the work of François Morellet: « There is a continuity between this very geometric and rigorous art form practised (with a lot of humour) by François Morellet and Art & Language composed of a group of very theoretical and funny artists ».

De gauche à droite: Philippe Méaille, Frédéric Morellet, Danielle Morellet, Michel Onfray, Jean-Maurice Belayche